1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector having a shield, in which two connectors (a receptacle connector and a plug connector) are respectively shielded and mounted on a different printed circuit board so as to connect those printed circuit boards to each other.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an electrical connector, which connects flat printed circuit boards to each other, is widely used. This type of electrical connector is respectively mounted on a different printed circuit board, and comprised of a receptacle connector and a plug connector, which connect to each other. By connecting the receptacle connector with the plug connector, the printed circuit boards are connected to each other.
The receptacle connector and the plug connector respectively have a connector fitting section on the respective connector housings, and each connector fitting section has a plurality of contact terminals, which are arranged thereon by a specified pitch. Usually, the contact terminals arranged on the connector housing of the receptacle connector have spring-like characteristics. Once the receptacle connector is connected to the plug connector, the contact terminals arranged on the respective connector housings are electrically connected to each other by contacting through pressure by the spring-like characteristics. The above-described receptacle connector and plug connector are connectors having a shield, and a shielding member is attached to the respective connector housings.
As shown in FIG. 34, the shielding member of the receptacle connector is comprised of side shielding plates 100, which are attached along both sides of the connector housing in the longitudinal direction of the connector, and end shielding plates 101, which are arranged at both ends of the connector of the connector housing in the lateral direction of the connector. The end shielding plates 101 are non-contact shields, which are not connected to the side shielding plates 100.
The shielding member of the plug connector is described in the patent reference 1. As shown in FIG. 34, the shielding member is comprised of side shielding plates 102, which are attached along both sides of the connector housing (not illustrated) in the longitudinal direction of the connector, and end shielding plates 103, which are arranged on both end surfaces of the connector housing in the lateral direction of the connector. Both ends of the end shielding plates 103 are curved, and have contact point sections 105 at the curved sections 104. By contacting those contact point sections with the side shielding plates 102, the side shielding plates 102 and the end shielding plates 103 are connected to each other.
In addition, in order to attach each of the side shielding plates 100 and 102 to both side surfaces of the connector housing, the side shielding plates 100 and 102 have a inverted U-shaped contact tongue section. By hooking the contact tongue sections to both side surfaces of the connector housing, those side shielding plates are attached to the connector housing. Moreover, in order to contact the contact tongue sections with the connector housing, the side shielding plates 100 and 102 have protrusions (not illustrated). In order to generate elastic force to press the protrusions to the connector housing, the side shielding plates 100 and 102 have a windows (not illustrated) near the protrusions. Patent Reference: Unexamined Japan Patent Application Publication H11-233201
As for the shielding member of the receptacle connector, the side shielding plates 100 are not connected to the end shielding plates 101, and there are unshielded portions between the side shielding plates 100 and the end shielding plates 101. Accordingly, when the receptacle connector is jointed to the plug connector, although the shielding members of the plug connector surround the shielding members of the receptacle connector, there are unshielded portions, and there is a plurality of windows on the side shielding plates 100. Therefore, there are problems such as unstable data transmission or communication error in an electronic device due to noise leakage. Especially, since high-speed signal transmission has been advanced in these years, those problems become more obvious.
Furthermore, in the shielding member of the plug connector, the end shielding plates 103 are provided near the end surfaces of the connector housing. There is some space between the end surface and the connector fitting section, which is not efficiently used and makes difficult to reduce the size of the connector.